With the Super Rugby season over for the Australian sides, it is time to reminisce. Here is the good, the bad and the beautiful for the Wallabies.

Good 1
The ARU’s announcement that Israel Folau has signed a three-year deal to stay in Australian rugby is an unqualified good. Folau is the only Wallaby who would certainly be selected for any of the top rugby nations, including the All Blacks, where he would play in his State of Origin position on the wing.

The new ARU deal with Folau allows him to play in Japan in the off-season, an indulgence already given to Bernard Foley. Folau, too, could be persuaded or told to play in the Australian Sevens side at the Rio Olympics. He would, at other times, lead the Waratahs from the back at fullback in their quest in the next couple of years for further Super Rugby glory in an expanded version of the tournament that starts next season.

Georgina Robinson, in the opening sentences of her report of Folau’s new deal, did not restrain herself in putting the boot in to the other rugby code: “It must kill the NRL to see it. The athlete they developed and turned into a household name is happy in rugby.”

I know, I know. In this age of commercialised sport, over-commercialised in fact, it is not becoming of rugby journalists to hammer league in the same manner as league used to hammer rugby when the former rah rah game was amateur.

And I am reluctant to even acknowledge Georgina’s sly effort of kicking league into touch. But I have to say that the continual mantra by, say, Malcolm Knox in the Sydney Morning Herald that rugby is a boring game, a nonsense repeatedly endorsed by the less eloquent Phil Gould, is grating and unbecoming of Knox, particularly, with his well deserved stature as one of Australia’s foremost sports writers.

I would make the simple and obvious point that the semi-finals of the 2015 Super Rugby tournament were much more exciting and provided a more dramatic and skilful spectacle than the first two State of Origin matches in 2015.

And I will go further and make the fearless prediction that the Super Rugby final between the Hurricanes and the Highlanders will be far more exciting and well-played, scrums and all, than the third State of Origin match next week.

Having said all this, which needed to be said, I take my own advice and declare a truce on the Rugby Wars that have been going on in Australia since 1907.

Coming back to Folau, Georgina Robinson made the further points that the star fullback’s decision is “a huge boost to the rugby code at a critical time … and a vote of confidence in Michael Cheika, the new Wallabies coach whose honest and respectful approach at the Waratahs first convinced Folau to give rugby a go.”

To be brutally frank, I believe that the second part of this rationalisation has over-egged the pudding. Rugby in Australia undoubtedly needs stars like Folau. Stars pull in the kids, particularly, and fair-weather supporters.

But for aligning his star power with the Australian rugby and its international marketing possibilities, Folau is being rewarded, in financial terms, far more than he would be if he stayed in league.

I was reminded of this discrepancy between local sporting fame (league) and international fame (rugby) when my son Zac, the publisher of The Roar, came back from a trip to Europe nearly two decades ago. He told me he saw a huge blown-up photo of Jonah Lomu outside a McDonald’s in Spain.

This was when Brad Fittler, say, was the darling of the sporting media in Sydney. But no huge photos of Fittler outside McDonalds in Spain, or even Sydney, for Fittler.

So Folau will be a target of international marketing and the huge payouts this involves, the reason why he is going to play in Japan. He has been a regular guest of Rugby HQ where his earnest ponderings are relatively meaningless, boring sports-cliche talk. He has “authored” a book on rugby for young kids and so on.

Folau does his best talking on the rugby field. He has the potential to ignite a strong Wallabies challenge in the 2015 Rugby World Cup. And for this reason, rugby is stronger in Australia, on and off the field, with his dynamic presence representing the national side, in whatever form of rugby, Sevens or XVs, he is selected for.

Good 2
Daryl Gibson, the new Waratahs coach, was (almost) right to make point that the all-New Zealand final is no bad omen for the Wallabies.

He instanced 1998 when New Zealand had three teams in the semi-final, “and it was one of the worst All Black seasons on record.”

I can remember after the final getting a telephone call from a senior ARU executive asking: “How are we going to beat the All Blacks after a final like that?”

Months later, the Wallabies defeated the All Blacks three-nil in the Bledisloe Cup series, culminating in a magnificent try at Christchurch by Matt Burke bursting away from the 19th ruck of a brilliant phase-sequence to score the try that clinched the game.

John O’Neill, the feisty CEO of the ARU, rather put the boot in after the match by making the brilliant quote that the lack of enthusiasm for the Wallabies effort from the Canterbury crowd reminded him of “the silence of the lambs.”

The New Zealand Rugby Union was so shattered by the outcome of the series that they decided never to play any more three-Test series against the Wallabies. The New Zealand Rugby Union maintained this restricted stance for about five years before succumbing to the money on offer (a bit like Folau) for an entrenched Sydney Test every year plus two other Wallaby-All Blacks Tests, with the three Tests to be allocated an an alternating 2 – 1 basis.

Gibson makes the point that you only have 15 players on the field, playing 15 (provided, of course, there are no yellow or red cards). New Zealand rugby can undoubtedly field a second XV that would be beat most Test first XVs.

But two contests are not what happens. Tests involve the best 15s against each other (with the bench playing an important role, too).

The Wallabies could conceivably do what they did in the great days of the Rod Macqueen era and trounce the All Blacks. This is correct. It has happened before. It will happen again, but it will take a coaching and selecting performance of Michael Cheika with the Wallabies that matches and, indeed exceeds, that with the Waratahs in 2014.

Can Michael Cheika be the 21st century coaching equivalent of Rod Macqueen?

Good 3
One factor that could work for Cheika is the fact that the performance of the Australian sides in the Super Rugby tournaments since 2011 has been generally strong, especially when compared with the experience of the South African sides.

Since 2011, New Zealand sides have won 44 per cent of their Super Rugby matches in South Africa. But only 33 per cent of their matches in Australia.

No New Zealand side has had a winning record in Australia since 2011, with the Crusaders and Hurricanes sitting on 5-5 and 6-6 respectively.

This year, too, was the first time since 2003 when there was no South African side in a semi-final. The Stormers, the top qualifying South African side was overwhelmed, 6 tries to 1, by the visiting Brumbies side.

The two Australian sides in the semi-finals, the Brumbies and the Waratahs, were however defeated by their New Zealand opponents. But the fact of them being there, as well as the strong record of Australian sides in Australia, suggests that there is some talent, and winning talent at that, for Michael Cheika to shape into a formidable Wallabies side.

Bad 1
The problem, though, with the Gibson thesis, at this untested point, is that there does seem to be a great gulf between the strong talent available to Michael Cheika with the Wallabies and abundance of absolutely brilliant talent available to Steve Hansen in his All Blacks squad.

There is no doubt in my mind that the All Blacks of 2015 will be a much better team than the All Blacks team that won the 2011 Rugby World Cup tournament.

They will have a more dynamic back-three, no matter what combination they play. The centre pairing of Ma’a Nonu and Conrad Smith, with Sonny Bill Williams to come, is even better than it was in 2011.

With Aaron Smith and T.J. Perenana, the All Blacks have their best halves since the days of Dave Loveridge and before him, Chris Laidlaw.

In the forwards, there is Brodie Retallick, who has become a powerhouse second-rower since 2011 and Dan Coles who is fast becoming the best in the world in the hooking position.

The Wallabies have only Israel Folau to match this glittering array of old and new talent developed by New Zealand rugby since 2011. One of the worst features of Australian rugby in the 2011-2015 period is the lack of glittering talent among the forwards and backs to emerge from the Super Rugby franchises.

Where are the Ellas, the Campeses, the Farr-Jones, the Horans, the Eales, the Larkhams of the recent past?

Bad 2
Mark Ella had an interesting article in The Australian last week pointing out that Australia, of the three southern hemisphere powers, is the only country not to have rested its Wallaby stars during the Super Rugby season.

Michael Hooper, for instance, played every match this year and a few days ago was complaining that he sometimes felt as though he was 40 years old.

Up until the Brumbies and Hurricanes semi-final, 12 Brumbies had played every game during the Super Rugby season. Only two Hurricanes players had played every match.

Ma’a Nonu was rested for four matches, even though he wasn’t injured during the season. Matt Toomua, on the other hand, was required to play with two injured ankles.

“What this tell us,” Ella opined, “is that the New Zealand Rugby Union is looking after its All Blacks, keeping them fit and fresh for the upcoming World Cup … They are giving themselves every advantage, unlike Australia.”

Ella was critical, too, of the Brumbies not allowing Henry Speight to plead guilty of a lifting charge and receiving a two-week suspension. By pleading not guilty, Speight received a five-week suspension which keeps him out of the first two Tests of The Rugby Championship.

Why would the Brumbies not accept the fact that Speight was out of the finals and ensure that he was available, virtually immediately, for the Wallabies?

Why didn’t the ARU intervene and tell the Brumbies to drop their stupid challenge to the lifting charge?

All this goes to an alarming lack of leadership from the ARU. This lack of leadership and overall control has been compounded by the acknowledgment by Bill Pulver that Michael Cheika has been given total control over the selecting of the Wallabies.

Why the talents of, say, Bob Dwyer or better Rod Macqueen aren’t brought in, as the All Blacks have with co-selector Grant Fox, is beyond me.

What, aside from selecting a mediocre jersey for 2015, has the ARU been doing to enhance the chances of the Wallabies to win their third Rugby World Cup tournament?

Beautiful 1
The final of the 2015 Super Rugby final is shaping up to be one of the best ever. The two best teams in the tournament are playing each other. Both of them are in terrific form, especially the Highlanders with their five tries against the Waratahs, at Sydney, when they have lost all their previous matches there.

The referee is South African Jaco Peyper, which is a surprise. I would have thought that Peyper allowing Cheika to talk to him at half-time during the Waratahs-Rebels match would have blotted his copy book for some time.

The form of the Hurricanes, except for a couple of games, has been exceptional. They are playing rugby the way it would be played in heaven, if there is a heaven. Like those great Galloping Greens Randwick teams of times past, the Hurricanes are at their most dangerous when they run the ball from inside their own 22.

Australian teams take note! You can run the ball back from inside your own half, and still win tournaments, or put yourself in the box seat to win the Super Rugby tournament of 2015.

Because rugby tolerates and often rewards flowing, ensemble play, with the forward on-rushing surge of players resembling an irresistible river flood, it can be the most beautiful and ruthless of games. So I am hoping for and predicting a Hurricanes victory.

This would provide, too, the cliche-writers with the justified opportunity of claiming “rugby is the winner.”